Comment by SteveVeilStream

One possible scenario is that they had a bird strike on one engine but then accidently turned the working engine off instead. Full loss of power from both engines could have taken the data recorder offline in an older aircraft like this one. With both engines off, they may have panicked to try to complete a tight turn to return to the airport and to maintain altitude to make it to the runway. It's possible the landing gear was forgotten but also possible that it was intentional (to extend glide.) It's too early to know anything with certainty but I suspect that the investigation will show that a different set of choices would have allowed them to put the plane down safely (for example by continuing with the initial approach.) Even in that case, they may not have been to blame - for example they may have been following a standard procedure that should be revisited.